Hugh J. Zimmer, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Zimmer Real Estate Services, is celebrating this year his fiftieth anniversary in the market. During that time, he has been responsible for the development of over 2,000 acres of business parks and over 26,000,000 square feet of commercial buildings throughout Kansas City and across the country. An active promoter of the area, Zimmer has served on the boards of the Greater Kansas City Area Chamber of Commerce, the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Kansas City, and many more. Son and company President David J. Zimmer seems poised to follow in his father's footsteps.

James B. Nutter runs the wildly successful Westport-based mortgage company that bears his name and remains the center of political energy among Democrats in Missouri. More of a kingmaker than a king, Nutter has raised lots of money for Democratic candidates and causes, largely on the local level where he has had more influence than the people he has helped elect. James Nutter, Jr., president and chief executive of James B. Nutter Company, is active within the mortgage company and political interests, but has some darn big shoes to fill. Speaking of family real estate dynasties, Allen Block, Chairman, and chips off the old Block, Ken, David, Michael, and Stephen Block, all senior vice-presidents, have helped Block & Company remain a commercial powerhouse in a seriously down market.

Len Rodman serves as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Black & Veatch, the area's largest engineering firm. A thirty year Black & Veatch veteran, Rodman faces the challenge of maintaining the company's dominance in a very difficult environment. Now in its 114th year, Shook, Hardy & Bacon ranks among the 50 largest law firms in America with 600 attorneys worldwide and a shiny new building in the Crown Center complex to highlight its success. Kudos to the Irish senior management duo of John Murphy, managing partner and Patrick McLarney.

Dolph Simons Jr. is one of the last of a vanishing breed, the owner-operator of a major media source. His operation is one of the most integrated multimedia packages in the nation with an 80 percent market penetration. He is editor and publisher of the Lawrence Journal-World and president of the World Company board, which controls Cable 6 News and World Online as well as the Journal-World. Simons recently resigned as Chairman of the influential Kansas University Endowment Association on which he had served for 25 years. Little happens in the Lawrence area without Simons being a part of it or reporting its progress.

As President and CEO of Security Benefit Group in Topeka Kris Robbins is a young man with a future. Robbins joined the company in July 1997. In September 1999, he was elected to Security Benefit's Board of Directors. SBG is the exclusive retirement program provider for the National Education Association, among others.

After nearly 30 years with the company, Tom Bowser has emerged as CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. Low-keyed but not afraid to speak his mind, Bowser has more than held his ground during a period of rapidly increasing health care premiums.

Betsey Solberg, regional president of the Kansas City office of Fleishman-Hillard, a public relations company, has served on the boards of Ferrellgas and the Kansas City Life Insurance Co. and as chairwoman of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. Though less active in Kansas City operations, Solberg remains a closely-connected force in the region.

As Chairman and managing Partner of the area's second largest law firm, Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin LLP, Dave Fenley helped grow the firm into its new Colonnade building on the Plaza. Fenley shook the area real state scene with his decision to make the move from its downtown office. Despite some early setbacks and uncertain press, the results should be worth the effort.

Those who have inherited the diminished but still considerable power in the area's troubled companies will have to bear down to reverse the company's fortunes. None has a greater opportunity than Sprint's new Chief Executive Gary Forsee. Forsee joined Sprint recently after a lengthy legal battle to exit a contract with BellSouth where he served as vice chairman. The most pressing question Forsee must answer is whether Sprint will remain an independent entity. The answer seems to be"maybe."

An equally daunting task faces Robert Terry, the new President and Chief Executive Officer of Farmland Industries. Terry, a 13-year company veteran who most recently served as Farmland executive vice president and general counsel, must resuscitate the fortunes of the bankrupt cooperative.

Charles A. Sullivan has not lost his position atop Interstate Bakeries, the largest wholesale bakery company in the United States. But he must bear down nonetheless to build a strong company in at least twelve ways, and selling Wonder Bread won't be enough. The company's stock prices have collapsed under the weight of at least six class action lawsuits, which, justly or otherwise, claim that the company used false reports to inflate its stock prices.